A People's Daily commentary on October 12, 2017, warned Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials not to “pray to God and worship Buddha”, because communism is about atheism and superstition is at the root of many corrupt officials who fall from grace. It said it had not been uncommon over the past few years to see officials taken down for corruption to have also participated in “feudalistic superstitious activities”. It added “In fact, some officials often go to monasteries, pray to God and worship Buddha, some officials are obsessed with rubbing shoulders with masters, fraternizing with them as brothers and becoming their lackeys and their money-trees.” The People’s Daily pointed to the example of Li Chuncheng, a former deputy party chief in Sichuan who was jailed for 13 years in 2015 for bribery and abuse of power, who it said was an enthusiastic user of the traditional Chinese geomancy practice of fengshui. Referrring to another much more junior official, in the southern province of Jiangxi, who wore charms to ward off bad luck, it said “As an official, if you spend all your time fixating on crooked ways, sooner or later you’ll come to grief.” The People’s Daily said officials must remember Marx’s guiding words that “Communism begins from the outset with atheism”. “Superstition is thought pollution and spiritual anesthesia that cannot be underestimated and must be thoroughly purged.”
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